Will Hiring Hackers Help Energy’s Cybersecurity Efforts?

The chief cybersecurity engineer for a major industrial process company advocated not long ago that oil and gas companies hire hackers to improve their cybersecurity defenses. At an annual European-Middle East-Africa user group conference in The Hague last October, Eric Knapp urged attendees to drop their negative perceptions and put hackers to work on their teams.

Knapp’s advice followed a presentation of survey findings stating that 82 percent of oil and gas industry respondents have experienced an increase in successful cyberattacks over the past 12 months. Executives of European petrochemical companies SARAS and SABIC estimated that cyberattacks cost businesses up to $400 billion per year.

Several weeks earlier, the World Energy Council (WEC) issued a report that, among other conclusions, found that the demand for cyber specialists is growing twice as fast as for all other IT jobs. The WEC cited research linking recent high-profile security breaches to a shortage of almost one million skilled cybersecurity professionals.

Our perspective:

The idea of leveraging “hackers” needs to be put into context. Many organizations have resources (internally or through consulting firms) who mimic the activity that various types of real hackers execute to illegally break into a company’s IT infrastructure. These “white hat” penetration testers are excellent at testing infrastructures, applications, networks and databases. The use of trained personnel who act as hackers but have written agreements and rules of engagement can make a lot of sense for an organization and is worth considering.

However, cybersecurity, much like other strategic initiatives, cannot be addressed with technology resources or tools alone. It requires a joint effort among departments and employees of all levels. In the same way that police cannot solve all crimes by themselves (despite being the “experts”), cybersecurity professionals need the knowledge and assistance of everyone in the organization. Employees who have been educated on matters of cybersecurity become empowered and thus an extension of the security program.

Finding the similarities between cyber risks and existing risks (e.g., safety) can help translate this subject to nontechnical resources. Many of the lessons learned with regard to overall risk management through more traditional departments, such as internal audit or compliance, can be applied to cybersecurity. Sharing data points that are already being collected by these departments can add value to analyzing security threats. At an even higher level, sharing information across the industry in cyber intelligence groups (CIGs) can allow firms to collaborate on specific threats and solutions, and share data that can add value to their overall threat analyses.

Is hiring “hackers” the answer to the cybersecurity challenge? It’s not quite that simple. White hat hackers certainly have a key skill set organizations need to face the growing threat of cyber crime, but the ultimate success of an organization lies in how well the leadership empowers the overall enterprise to combat cyber risks together.

Luis Castillo of Protiviti Technology Consulting contributed to the development of this content.